Transcendence Victory strategies

[Duskblood]

My first Transcendence Victory......here's some lessons learned:

• She blinded me with Science - You will definintely want to focus a bit on science, as there is a number of technologies that you need to research that are, of course, on different branches of the Techweb.
• The following techs are required just to build the Mindflower - Transgenics, Swarm Intelligence, and Nanorobotics. They're on different branches so I can't suggest any specific route to pick them all up.
• If you want to complete the victory quicker, you need to pick up the Alien Ethics tech also. This tech allows you to build the Mind Stem and Xeno Sanctuary. Building these decreases the 30-turns you need to wait to get the victory after building the Mindsflower.
• Xeno Sanctuary requires Xenomass, so make sure you have some available to build with.
• Aliens! No matter if you were friendly or not, they don't seem to like the fact that you are mindmelding with the planet they live on, and will become aggressive. Kill them in advance or at least be prepared.
• Try to get extra energy towards the end game to build Mind Stems and Xeno Sanctuaries.
• I thought the other colonies would gang up on me once I built the MindFlower, but that did not end up happening after all.
• Once you build the Mindflower, it's a waiting game. You need to wait 30 turns if you have no Mind Stems/ Xeno Sanctuaries.
• If another colony builds the MindFlower while you are waiting for your victory, try to search where it is and click on it to see how many turns they have left.

Here's a link to a video of my game. Hope it helps .....


Link to video.

 

[s0nny80y]

I'd like to add that destroying an AI's mind flower doesn't reset their count in case they rebuild it.

And according to my last game, a destroyed mind flower can be rebuilt by the AI in less than ten turns on standard, Apollo (Hutama no less). No bologna.

 

[echelontee]

About AI declaring war when you're nearing victory; this is anecdotal, but I've only seen them react to a Beacon being built (contact victory).

For the three affinity victories, there was no change in diplomacy at all, with enemies still being enemies, friends being friends. It seems like you are pretty safe in going for these victories.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

Some advanced stuff:
-> Use the free tech from Institutes to grab Nanorobotics. The Nanopasture greatly helps city growth.
-> Xeno Sanctuaries are great mid game culture boosters. Try to get Harmony 5 quickly and build them everywhere.
-> It might be possible that buildings like Mind Stem and Xeno Sanctuary already work before or while the Mind Flower is built, since I managed to get 1 turn Transcendence victories in two of my games.

 

[Taronas]

Some advanced stuff:
-> It might be possible that buildings like Mind Stem and Xeno Sanctuary already work before or while the Mind Flower is built, since I managed to get 1 turn Transcendence victories in two of my games.

This seems to be the only way they actually help: I just finished a couple Mind Stem buildings after the Mind Flower was already build but they did not decrease the turn count any further (started with 20 turns from already existing buildings)

 

[Toranth]

This seems to be the only way they actually help: I just finished a couple Mind Stem buildings after the Mind Flower was already build but they did not decrease the turn count any further (started with 20 turns from already existing buildings)

Looking at the Lua and XML, that seems right. The turns value is set when you build the Mind Flower (base = 30 - number_of (Xeno Sanctuary, Mind Stem). Min 1 turn.

So, yeah, if you've built 29 Xeno Sanctuaries and/or Mind Stems before the Mind Flower finishes, you'll win next turn. Otherwise, don't bother: there doesn't seem to anything that can reduce the total number of turns needed once you've started.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

Well, that is certainly good to know. So 14-15 cities is the ideal setup for Harmony...

 

[Mercade]

If you want to complete the victory quicker, you need to pick up the Alien Ethics tech also. This tech allows you to build the Mind Stem and Xeno Sanctuary. Building these decreases the 30-turns you need to wait to get the victory after building the Mindsflower.

Do we have any idea or way to follow the effect of the Mind Stem and Xeno Sanctuary? In the description it says they add a victory point per turn or something similar, but I see no place where the victory points are actually displayed.

About AI declaring war when you're nearing victory; this is anecdotal, but I've only seen them react to a Beacon being built (contact victory). For the three affinity victories, there was no change in diplomacy at all, with enemies still being enemies, friends being friends. It seems like you are pretty safe in going for these victories.

This is my experience too. One AI did a sneak attack declaring war and bringing 4 boats of some sort (but no land troops to actually take a city to get to the Beacon, duh). The aliens and other AI just went on their merry way while I invisibly collected points.

 

[joncnunn]

Moderator Action: Moved to Stores & Let's Plays and VidLP tag added